Understanding how to add ornamentation, such as trills and grace notes, to a melody.
Trills: A rapid alternation between two adjacent notes.
Mordents: A quick alternation between a note and its adjacent lower or upper note.
Appoggiaturas: A grace note that leans on the main note and then resolves to it.
Acciaccaturas: A short grace note that is played quickly before a main note.
Turns: An ornament consisting of four notes that create a sequence of a main note, a note above it, the main note again, and a note below it.
Glissandos: A sliding effect between two notes.
Tremolos: A rapid repetition of a single note or alternation between two notes.
Portamento: A smooth glide from one note to another.
Grace notes: A small, ornamental note played before a main note.
Slurs: A curved line connecting two or more notes to indicate that they should be played legato.
Staccato: A short, detached style of playing notes.
Legato: A style of playing notes smoothly and connectedly.
Arpeggios: A broken chord played one note at a time.
Chordal embellishments: Adding additional notes to a chord to create a more complex harmonic texture.
Embellishing melodies: Adding ornamentation to a melody to make it more interesting.
Fills: Short, improvised musical lines played between phrases or sections of a song.
Passing tones: A non-harmonic note that is played between two chord tones.
Neighboring tones: An ornament that involves playing a note adjacent to the main note, either above or below it.
Pedal tones: A sustained note played in the bass while other notes in the melody change.
Sequential ornamentation: Using patterns of ornamentation that repeat at different pitch levels.
Trill: A rapid alternation between a note and the note directly above it, typically indicated by a squiggly line above the note.
Mordent: A rapid alternation between a note and the note directly below it, indicated by a small vertical line through the note.
Turn: A short ornament consisting of a note above the written pitch, the written pitch, a note below the written pitch, and then the written pitch again, indicated by a small arc above the note.
Appoggiatura: A grace note played on the beat, taking up half of the written value of the note it precedes.
Acciaccatura: A grace note played very quickly on the beat, taking up almost no time.
Grace notes: Ornamental notes played quickly either preceding, modifying or succeeding the main note.
Tremolo: A rapid alternation between two notes, typically notated as a wavy line over the two notes.
Glissando: A sliding effect between two notes, notated with a straight line with an arrow at both ends.
Portamento: A sliding effect between two notes with direction, notated with a curved line between the two notes.
Double stops: The simultaneous playing of two notes on a string instrument, usually a violin or cello.
Pizzicato: Plucking the strings of a string instrument.
Vibrato: A slight and rapid fluctuation in pitch on a sustained note, typically played on a string instrument by slightly rocking the left hand.
Slide: A sliding effect between two notes, common in blues and rock music, notated with a straight line between the two notes.
Grace note triplet: Three rapid grace notes played in the time taken by one regular note.
Appoggiatura triplet: Three rapid grace notes played within the time value of the main note.